Global Issues: Changing Nature of Warfare ~ Drone Attacks - Death From Above, Outrage from Below

The continued drone attacks in north west Pakistan have prompted a number of articles in the press recently. In terms of the Global Issues course the use of drones is worth exploring both in respect of the ‘Revolution in Military Affairs’ for the Changing Nature of Warfare and also in relation to Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism.

The BBC website has an excellent overview of the topic in Mapping US drone and Islamic militant attacks in Pakistan - wich contains maps, graphs, statistics and explanatory fact files on the topic.

The Independent carries an emotive piece by Johann Hari: Obama’s robot wars endanger us all He aserts: ‘The drones have killed some jihadis. But the evidence suggests they create far more jihadis than they kill - and make an attack on me or you more likely with each bomb.’

An earlier article, written just after the uncovering of plots to threaten European cities with Mumbai style attacks, argued that the northern Pakistan drone strategy may fuel al-Qaeda’s desire for revenge. The attacks operated by the CIA and the targeting of suspected militants in northern Pakistan have intensified over the past months. However, officials in Islamabad deny the upsurge is linked to a specific terror plot. There have been at least 21 strikes in September as the Obama administration aims to widen the scope to take in both high- and low-ranking militants. This month’s strikes are said to have killed more than 100 people in the country’s remote tribal areas. Many of them inevitably will have been civilians. But a senior al-Qaeda figure, Sheikh al-Fateh, was also killed in these strikes. Analysts say that the upsurge in strikes reflects ongoing US efforts to maintain pressure on al-Qaeda and Taliban militants ahead of a review of the Afghan strategy later this year.

The reliance on unmanned drones to target terror suspects in Pakistan is facing mounting legal and ethical concerns as evidenced by this recent CFR article: U.S. Drone Activities in Pakistan which states:
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), often referred to as drones, have become increasingly important in U.S. efforts to strike militants in Pakistani regions bordering Afghanistan. In its first eighteen months, the Obama administration authorized more drone attacks in Pakistan than its predecessor did over two terms. UAV strikes in Pakistan have also been effective at eliminating al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership. Since the Obama administration ramped up the covert program in 2009, more than a dozen of top al-Qaeda leaders have been killed (Long War Journal). Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, a founding member of al-Qaeda, was reportedly killed by an American drone strike in May 2010 (CSM). The June 2010 killing of eight militants (NYT) in Pakistan is the most recent reported drone attack.
Although targeting terror suspects with UAVs in official combat areas is deemed legal, the use of the technology outside a declared zone of combat—i.e., Iraq and Afghanistan—has brought international criticism. Complicating the picture in Pakistan is that the UAV-targeting program is believed to be operated by the CIA; a number of disclosures by senior U.S. officials have all-but confirmed the operations. The distinction between military applications and covert CIA use of drones has become a point of contention, as are issues pertaining to collateral damage and legal justification.
The theme is further explored in an excellent older article entitlred Drone Wars.